England fans' fury at video World Cup squad announcement
England were reaching for a new social media high with their World Cup squad announcement, but instead they hit an excruciating new low.
The traditional squad list circulated to the country was gone and they made a total hash of it by trying to be too cutting edge with their hare-brained plan to keep us all young at heart.
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Doing away with the normal straight forward confirmation, the Football Association instead tried to be down with the kids. Doing it in video form, starring youngsters of all backgrounds.
It was the worst launch since the Titanic.
For the nation, by the nation. The #ThreeLions’ official @FIFAWorldCup squad announcement. pic.twitter.com/YecUWPUZfJ
— England (@England) May 16, 2018
Nearly two minutes later, in between screams from youths announcing every player by name, we finally found out the 23 who were going to Russia.
Confusing, unwanted, and out of touch with what everyone needed.
Unhelpful to anyone who wasn’t sitting somewhere with inch-perfect wifi, headphones and time to listen to it all without ticking someone off.
It left the media rolling their eyes, as it took that little bit longer for the video to be rewound and listened to again to make sure.
No full list appeared anywhere until 2.10pm, with the FA not offering the press an embargoed, easy-to-distribute squad check.
When you hold back information from the public for no reason, the public don’t like it.
This announcement is embarrassing!!
— Lewis Marsh (@lewismarsh93) May 16, 2018
Twitter was awash with negativity for the not-so grand unveiling.
“What the f*** is this bull****?! Just announce the squad,” said one England fan, unhappy at the process.
There were call-ups for Liverpool’s Trent Alexander-Arnold and Chelsea’s Ruben Loftus-Cheek. But you had to wait a long time to discover that…